Saturday, October 15, 2005

Hasidic Village Keeps Women Out of the Driver's Seat

Even as the White House presses Saudi Arabia to permit women to drive, an ultra-Orthodox community in New York has launched a campaign to reassert its ban on female motorists.

During her trip last month to Saudi Arabia, Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes delivered a speech in which she stressed the Bush administration's determination to see Saudi women obtain more rights — including the right to drive.

Meanwhile, in the Hasidic village of New Square, N.Y., religious leaders recently issued a document reminding residents that "women should not sit in the front of a car." Released in July by the community's top rabbinical court, the document was aimed at shoring up several communal standards — especially those regarding women's conduct.

"It's considered not tzniusdik [modest] for a woman to be a driver, not in keeping with the out-of-public-view [attitude]," village spokesman Rabbi Mayer Schiller said. "If you can imagine in Europe, would a woman have been a coach driver, a wagon driver? It would've been completely inappropriate."

The village's religious leaders have made an exemption for an 80-year-old woman who was one of the community's original residents and hadn't known about the driving prohibition before she moved there.

New Square, a 7,000-person enclave located 40 miles north of New York City, was founded by the late Skverer rebbe Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Twersky, a Holocaust survivor, and his followers. The village was established in 1954 and officially incorporated seven years later. It relies heavily on private charitable donations and on government-assistance programs.

In the recent document, New Square religious leaders reiterated the prohibition against girls riding bicycles; also, women are forbidden from going outside in their long housecoats, a common fashion staple in many Orthodox communities.

The rules "are nothing new," Schiller said, but "there's just a sense that for some of the young people they need to reinforce them." He added that in the village's entire history, similar comprehensive lists of communal standards have been posted "maybe five or 10 times, but probably no more than that."

"If you would poll the community... 97.5% would say, 'Yes, this is what we want,'" Schiller said.

While the rules are meant to apply to residents, clearly they're not part of the criteria for endorsing candidates for elective office. New Square's top rabbis endorsed Hillary Clinton in her successful run for the senate in 2000, and delivered all but a few votes for the former first lady. Clinton spokeswoman Me-ah Zonah did not return repeated requests for comment.

The recent document in New Square addressed a wide range of prohibitions. One rule requires that a fence be constructed around houses that have a trampoline.

Another states that exercise groups can be formed only with the permission of a rabbinical court and that they require a mashgiach (religious inspector) to oversee them.

Some of the regulations are targeted at men, including a clause instructing male worshippers to keep their cell phones off and to refrain from talking during prayer times. But it is the rules pertaining to women — in particular, those related to driving — that bear a striking resemblance to the Saudi practices criticized by the Bush administration.

In some ways, Saudi Arabia's laws regarding women are more permissive than the religious edicts in New Square. For example, a Saudi woman is allowed to ride in the front seat of a car if the driver is her husband. While husbands and wives in Saudi Arabia are allowed to walk with each other, New Square men and women always must walk on different sides of the street. In strong contrast to Saudi Arabia, the government does not enforce the religious rules in New Square; violations do not result in any form of corporal punishment. But those who frequently violate the rules in New Square are blackballed from the community.

"I can think of just a handful of cases over the years" in which someone was expelled from New Square's religious community, Schiller said.

"I don't think any of these transgressions would get you to be expelled from the community," Schiller said. But, he added, "If a young woman was driving, that would be fairly serious."

Schiller warned against drawing any negative conclusions about New Square based on the Saudi situation. "It is a mistake to view a religious practice negatively just because another culture, aspects of which we may find troubling, also practices it," he said. At the same time, the New Square spokesman was critical of the Bush administration's efforts in the Middle East.

"American foreign policy has moved towards a messianic, crusading secularism which judges all other peoples by the standards of our own 'fashionable' elites," he said. "This monolithic utopianism inevitably yields spiritual, moral and practical disasters."

UOJ CommentsSchiller did not comment about the fire that destroyed all the financial records at New Square as the Government was investigating millions of dollars of theft.Schiller also did not make mention of the convicted felons from New Square, close associates of the Rebbe, that were pardoned by Bill Clinton on his last day in office.New Square has become a sewer of corruption led by a smiling Howdy Doody buffoon.

Noone is forced to live in new square, on the contrary, the people who live there are people who believe that these religious standards should be upheld. Now what's the problem, a village of people who don't agree with you religiously? Doesn't that make you INTOLERANT? Just asking. JERUSALEM JEW.

UOJ: You really should make it clearer that your last few sentences weren't part of the original article, which is here: http://www.forward.com/articles/4805.

Anonymous: If all the people there believed that these standards should be upheld, why would anyone there ever want to be violating them!? Obviously, not everyone does! The fact is that many people live there because they agree with a lot of that lifestyle, but not all of it. Additionally, the truth is that people are forced to live there to some extent. In most of the chareidi community (and especially chassidish), people live at home until they get married, even if they are already adults (maybe not guys, but women definitely). I have a chareidi cousin who's 29 and single, but she wouldn't ever consider living anywhere but with her family. It would be scandalous.

to yy, Its just a few days after yom kippur, and you have a sewer for a mouth. ITs called "nival Peh",its a serious matter. What your doing is a chillul Hashem.If you can not argue, then use nival peh. Thats how you make your point.Nobodys talking about girls on Tramboulines here, its the front seat of a car. A car is not the old time Horse and carriage! What the squares are saying is not based on halacha ,its more haskafa.To me if they want to impose thses restrictions on themselves, it really doesn't matter as long as they do'nt throw stones on cars of frum jews who don't abide by these so called "chumras".Perhapes they should come up with guidelines against fraund and govt embezzalments. This is really where the chillul Hashem come into play. Lets clean up the genava ---theft before dealing with chumras.Where are the chumras when it comes to theft.Theft is a torah commandment, girls driving in the front seat is for esthetic purposes only. It makes them look like real frummies.

You can NOT find one group of chassidim that are NOT corrupt from top to toe.They are NOT AUTHENTIC JEWS, they are charlatans in the worst order.They create all kinds of B.S. fake stringencies, but the basic Torah they spit on over and over again.The Vilna Gaon wasright, "Chassidism is NOT Judaism."

un-orthodox jew is showing his ignorance, stupidity and racism. Why am I not surprised.

That doesn't mean that the frum community doesn't have to do some serious soul searching. Why do we believe that we are above the law - and I am not just talking about secular law but Torah law as well!

BTW, I don't believe the Vina Gaon said any such thing. Maybe his followers did....

Welcome Aussie Echo!!!Please spread your silly Lubab ignorance, from 'Down Under'here.Actually for some reason UOJ had Some kind things to say about the Rebbe a while back.Whatever the case, Aussie, this is one site were your Lubab craziness will be met by uncensored truth.Yechi Hamelech

After a visit to Crown Heights a short while ago and witnessing the literally thousands of deranged followers mostly from Israel many with oversize skullcaps proclaiming the late Rebbe to be alive and the Messiah, I no longer believe the contention that the 'meshichisten' are not a very large percentage of the Lubavitcher.In fact when I went to 770, the main synagogue it was obvious that this central institution waS firmly under the control of the kooks.They even made 'space' for the imaginary ,live Rebbe to come in and out of shul, like in the dayS of old when the Rebbe actually entered and exited.To me this is the way Christianity started.

All Chassidim have gone nuts.There is a common thread to all of them which has no root in Judaism, that is the role of the rebbe as intemediary between the common folk and G-d.The present group of rebbe's are gangsters who prey on their flock and are getting away with it.To boot, most of them are total ignoramuses and downright evil people.Lubavitch has lost their right to be called Jews.

Look, I don't think Rebbes are gangsters(though they probably need to get a day job)and that we need to right off 'nice, normal lubabs'What we do need to realize is:Lubavitch in its current state is a dangerous cult both spiritually and physically, for example this supposedly apolitical group was at the forefront of the most violent demonstrations against the disengagement, whether or not one was for or against, the behaved in the most scary and violent way

There are some "nice guys" that are Buddhists, Scientologists.....,Noone claims that ALL chassidim are evil.The Chassidic movements are all evil for they misrepresent and distort Judaism.THEY ARE CULTS!!Weak and vulnerable people always look to "LEADERS" to make decisions for them while bleeding them emotionally and monetarily.The rebbes all know what their underlings are doing and encourage them.R' Aron Kotler could have stunted their growth and acceptance, but turned his back from this important fight.Yitzchok Hutner embraced the cultish idea for himself, donned a spudik and created his own cult.

All these quotes are Vertlach and singular ideas that were tossed around in the Bais Medrash.The "tzaddik Yesod Olam" theory was based om Avrom Aveinu's plea to Hashem to save Sdom.Sure we can extrapolate theories and Bubba Maases from any KooKoo concept of yesteryear.We need to look for the roots of these stories, and will find out they were created mostly by street philosophers with too much time on their hands.BTW, the Shrayim theory is of CHRISTIAN/CATHOLIC origins, for anyone who cares.

hippocrat-is this a new breed of animal? A mix betweeen a hippo and a feline? I believe the word you're searching for is HYPOCRITE

Trambouline-a French word meaning small street car, perhaps? Or did you mean TRAMPOLINE?

do'nt--Sigh. How about DON'T, as in DO NOT.

fraund--Mein liebe fraund. The word is FRAUD

embezzalments--EMBEZZLEMENT--Used in a sentence. While most Rabbis can't spell the word, they are proficient in embezzlement.

The present group of rebbe's--REBBES here means more than one rebbe, not something belonging to a rebbe, therefore it should be rebbes, or rebbies, not rebbe's which is belonging to the rebbe.

hadred--HATRED

"yy, perhapes thr squarer rebbe can fit you in for some counselling"--Perhaps he can fit you in for some spelling and typing lessons. The words are PERHAPS, THE, Squarer, (should be capitalized) and counseling has one L

intemediary--INTERMEDIARY

nobly --NOBLEY

Noone--TWO WORDS. NO ONE. Used in a sentence...Almost NO ONE who graduated from a frummie yeshiva with the word Torah V'Crappola in its title can spell BASIC ENGLISH.